In accordance with U.S. Pat. No. 5,401,457 for PROCESS FOR FORMING A COLOR COATED ARTICLE, By Emery I. Valyi, Patented Mar. 28, 1995, a process is provided for forming a color coated article. In accordance with the procedure of the ""457 patent, a film is placed substantially flat over a mold cavity and deformed by a core half and by molten plastic entering through a sprue. However, the procedure of the ""457 patent is difficult to control, particularly when molding parts with large surfaces and sharply varying curvatures. The difficulties increase when the plastic is pressure molded at high enough temperatures to reduce the film strength substantially, as is the case with conventional injection molding procedures.
In accordance with U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/130,864, filed Aug. 7, 1998, by Emery I. Valyi et al., now U.S. Pat. No. 6,132,699 a color coated article is prepared by depositing molten plastic on a film and forming the film-molten plastic combination in a mold cavity. This procedure and the resultant article effectively and efficiently forms a color coated article. However, it would be particularly desirable to further improve the resultant article particularly degradation of the film, particularly thinning of the color layer after forming.
Accordingly, it is a principal objective of the present invention to provide an improved plastic-film laminate which may be conveniently and expeditiously obtained.
It is a still further object of the present invention to provide an improved laminate as aforesaid which reinforces the film without loss of properties therein and without jeopardizing the ease and convenience of final article preparation.
Further objects and advantages of the present invention will appear hereinbelow.
In accordance with the present invention, the foregoing objects and advantages are readily obtained.
The molded article of the present invention comprises: a plastic layer; an outer film layer over said plastic layer and forming a composite laminate therewith, said outer film layer having an inner surface adjacent and bonded to said plastic layer and an outer surface opposed to said inner surface; a reinforcing material adhered to and preferably at least partly embedded in the inner surface of the outer film layer; and a colored, decorative layer with color uniformity on the outer surface of said outer film layer. The reinforcing material may desirably be metal, as metal mesh or metal fabric, plastic, carbon fiber, fiberglass, textiles (natural or synthetic), or combinations of these.
The process of the present invention comprises: providing a composite laminate having an outer film layer with an inner surface and an outer surface opposed to said inner surface, an inner plastic layer bonded to said inner surface, and a colored, decorative layer on said outer surface; reinforcing the inner surface of the outer film layer with a reinforcing material between the outer film layer and the inner plastic layer; and molding a plastic article from said reinforced composite laminate, wherein the colored, decorative layer maintains color uniformity in the molded article.
In the preferred embodiment, the colored layer has a thickness of less than 0.01 inch and desirably from 0.001-0.006 inch. It is a particular advantage of the present invention that the resultant molded article has a color change after molding of less than 2 McAdam units, particularly in view of the thin colored layer and the molding operation.
Further features of the present invention will appear from the following disclosure.